https://orthodoxethos.com/post/response-from-the-patriarchate-of-antioch-to-spokesman-for-the-council-in-crete
Monthly Archives: June 2016
Independence Day
Fooled, Europa! Ruled by such fools and knaves,
Britons never any longer shall be slaves.
The unexpected has happened and, after over forty years of the US-imposed EU straitjacket, more people in the UK have voted for principles than for self-interest. The electorate has rejected Project Fear of the Westminster elite. Failing to step outside the foreign country that is London into reality, the political elite, which all too often stuffed its pockets with EU cash, has lost the people. Foreign figures, President Obama, NATO Fascists, Angela Merkel, EU officials, the Pope of Rome (and his bishops in the UK), as well as bastions of the Establishment, Blair and Cameron (should that be Clair and Bameron?), the BBC, most of the Press, the Church of England, MI5 and MI6, all took part in Project Fear, and lost, underestimating the thirst for freedom of the people, so long ignored, so long neglected, so long despised. Even though they manipulated the shooting of a female MP (the conspiracy theorists at once saw in it an Establishment assassination) in their desperation to garner votes at the last minute, they still lost.
On the 950th anniversary of the enslavement of England, and soon after of the other peoples of these isles, to the European Superstate run by the then new Roman Papacy, the forerunner of the present Superstate, people have chosen freedom. Freedom here may also mean freedom for others. Scotland may leave the artificial UK and Ireland may at last be able to reunite. As for other European countries still enslaved to the US and German-run EU, they too may at last be allowed the chance to regain their sovereignty with the people being allowed freedom from the tyrannical EU elite. In the Netherlands, in Denmark, in Sweden, in France, in Italy, in the Czech Republic, and elsewhere, especially in Eastern Europe, referenda for freedom may be held. The EU, merely a post-war model of Europe and reaction to the Second World War of long ago, may be dead. A Europe of Sovereign Nations, at peace because living in freedom, now seems possible at last. The UK has chosen the wide world to a political customs union in a narrow corner of the Eurasian Continent. 75 years ago Britain stood alone against the Third Reich; now it has happened against the Fourth Reich.
Our Hope for an Orthodox Church in Norwich (Update 13)
The Update: £4,000 Extra Needed!
Now on 22 June, we are coming to the end of the saga of establishing a multinational Orthodox church in Norwich. However, we will need nearly £4,000 more than we originally thought because of extra building costs. It was on 15 April 2016 that we managed to buy the premises for our future church in Norwich. After a three and a half month wait to receive planning permission from the ultra-bureaucratic Norwich City Council, we had to wait an additional six months for exactly the same organization to send our solicitor the lease. On 9 May, building work starting inside in order to transform the building into an Orthodox church and on 25 May workers began knocking down internal walls. On 29 June we will set up the new iconostasis. After this will following painting and the laying of floor coverings. God willing, the first Liturgy will take place in August. At last a permanent home for Russian Orthodoxy in Norwich after over thirty years of struggles. Thank you!
History
In the East of England there is at present only one multinational and multilingual church faithful to Russian Orthodoxy with its own urban premises. This is St John’s Church in Colchester. God willing and with your support, we have now been able to buy a second one, in Norwich, exactly 60 miles, 100 kilometres, to the north of Colchester.
Why Norwich? For the last five years I have been visiting Norwich and some of the 200 Russian Orthodox there, mainly recent immigrants from the Baltic States, especially from Estonia. I have baptized several in their homes, married couples in Colchester, buried, blessed houses, listened to confessions, visiting every few weeks, sometimes twice a month and am Orthodox chaplain at Norwich Prison.
We thought of dedicating our community to St Alexander Nevsky. We attempted to begin liturgies using the Greek Orthodox church building in Norwich, but were impeded. How are our people and English people and others interested in the witness of the Russian Orthodox Church, to be cared for pastorally? Only from a church building. And such life is required not only by Russian speakers, but also by Romanian, Bulgarian and English Orthodox. Most of our regular parishioners, only one of whom has a car, live within easy walking distance of this building.
On Friday 8 May 2015, Fr Andrew saw a leasehold property for sale on the rightmove website for £50,000 at 134, Oak Street, Norwich. It measures 88 square metres externally and is at present used as offices and rooms for a cultural centre. It has electricity, heating and water and is in very good condition. It is so cheap because it is leasehold, in other words, you have to pay £100 rent per month for the ground it is built on. This amount is fixed until 2032. The lease itself is even longer – it lasts until 2047.
On Wednesday 13 May 2015 we organized a visit to these premises, attended by 9 local Russian Orthodox.
By Friday 15 May, Orthodox in Norwich had generously promised to donate £5,250.
On Monday 18 May Fr Andrew received Archbishop Mark’s blessing to buy the building if possible, meaning we could start obtaining pledges to donate.
On Thursday 21 May we heard from the surveyor that it would cost £3,000-£5,000 to knock down the internal walls and make good the floor and ceiling, so we could use this building as a church. This was lower than Fr Andrew had estimated.
On Wednesday 27 May we heard that our offer of £42,500 had been accepted. However, since conversion and furnishing costs will come to £13,500, this meant that we would need £55,000 in all.
On Friday 29 May we submitted the planning application for change of use from offices to a place of worship. This, we were told then, would take at least 6-8 weeks but should result in a positive answer.
On Wednesday 3 June we launched an internet appeal for £55,000 in order to set up our own church in Norwich.
By Wednesday 29 July, eight weeks after the appeal launch, total gifts and pledges had reached £55,000.
On Tuesday 29 September, after over three and a half months!, we finally received planning permission to convert the building into an Orthodox church.
On Friday 15 April 2016 we were at last able to complete the purchase of our premises and prepare to engage a builder to start work on the premises.
On Wednesday 20 April we received the keys and saw builders to obtain quotes to do the necessary work of knocking down internal walls and then making good the electrics, plumbing, floor and ceiling.
On Friday 22 April, the electricity and water were reconnected and supply contracts prepared.
On Tuesday 3 May, we chose the building contractor we wish to use.
On Monday 9 May, electrical and plumbing work began and the structural engineer called in.
On Wednesday 25 May, almost exactly one year after our offer had been accepted!, demolition of internal walls began and Fr Andrew saw a locksmith to replace the broken lock on the main door and a signwriter to replace the signs on the outside, so that all will know that this is an Orthodox Church, and new lighting was bought for installation. Following this the electrical system and plumbing were adapted to our needs.
On Monday 30 May, we were told that the building work would cost almost £4,000 more than expected because of unforeseen structural problems. Although we did not have the money in the Norwich fund for this, we put our faith in Providence and decided to go ahead anyway.
On Monday 20 June workers at last began replastering the ceiling and walls and putting in the new floor.
On Wednesday 29 June we will hire a lorry and take everything that had been prepared in Colchester to Norwich and set up the iconostasis.
The Man Behind the Scenes in Crete
http://katehon.com/article/man-behind-scenes-crete-council
The Problems of the ‘Pan-Orthodox Council’
http://katehon.com/article/fr-andrew-phillips-problems-pan-orthodox-council
The Double-Headed Eagle: Orthodox Christianity Incarnate
Foreword: A Real Council is Coming
In view of the shameful masonic and humanist apostasy going on behind closed doors at the robber conference of a few in Crete and which has little or nothing to do with the Church, we have felt it necessary to compose some initial response. The efforts of the secularists and compromised to impose on the Church the same old-fashioned 1960s heresies as were promoted by Vatican II will not be successful, for the gates of hell will not prevail, and a real Council will in time reply. Below is our first response, a response of free Orthodox, to the syncretism and ecumenism of the Teilhard de Chardin Halfodoxy of Crete. This is a vision of the Church that is both Trinitarian and Christological, both local and global, both of the Tradition and also realistic.
Introduction: The Heartland
Orthodox Christianity is by earthly origin Asian. However, within a few years of the Resurrection of Christ, symbolized by the Cross, it had spread to Europe. The symbol of its geographical spread thus soon became the double-headed eagle and it remains so to this day. The double-headed eagle unites north and south and looks east and west, which by the fifth century meant India and Ireland. The centre of the Orthodox Christian world, the Orthosphere, is therefore in Eurasia, what is called ‘The Heartland’. Since the late fifteenth century this has meant the lands of the Russian Empire, with today over 75% of the world’s Orthodox Christian population, the other 25% living in peripheral lands or else scattered through all the lands of the earth.
For the Father: The Orthodox Christian Faith
The word Christian became debased, especially during the second millennium and today it often means Roman Catholic and Protestant, which are transformed and deformed nationalized versions of Christianity. This can clearly be seen in the actions of the imperialistic and bloodthirsty Roman Catholic Crusaders who actually wore a cross on their backs, as they massacred to extend their power-grab. This is why we are obliged to use the term Orthodox Christian. Even here we must be careful, for there are those who, though calling themselves Orthodox, are in fact false Orthodox and are inclined to be Halfodox. Genuine Orthodox Christians are all the faithful who are not controlled and conditioned by the world, whose prince is satan.
For the Son: The Orthodox Christian Sovereign
Orthodox Christianity is Incarnate, lived in daily life, in monasteries, parishes and families. It is not some disincarnate and abstract daydream of intellectuals, ‘spiritualized’, full of spite for the living Tradition, and so irrelevant. We now await the Coming Sovereign Emperor and Tsar, who according to the prophecies of the saints of God will appear soon, but only if we manage to repent and resist the ongoing preparations of the secularists to enthrone Antichrist in Jerusalem. We Orthodox Christians are heirs to the Christian Roman Empire, not to the Pagan Roman Empire and its materialist ideology and idolatry, whether it is called Capitalist or Communist. ‘No man can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and Mammon’.
For the Holy Spirit: The Orthodox Christian People
The Orthodox Christian faithful are of many nations and races, north and south, east and west. The faithful are not nationalists, racists or, in Church language, phyletists. The faithful come from and live in ten different regions of the world: to the centre, the majority live in the Eurasian Heartland; to the far west in North America and to the west in Western Europe; to the far east in China with south-east Asia and to the east in Kazakhstan and Central Asia; to the far south-west in Latin America and to the south-west in Africa; to the south in the Middle East; to the far south-east in Australasia and to the south-east in the Indian Subcontinent. The mere existence of the faithful witnesses to the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us.
Conclusion: Faith, Throne and People in the Isles
These Isles are distant provinces and yet they were visited by both the first Christian Emperor and the last Christian Emperor. On 25 July 306 the future St Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor in York and founded New Rome, between Europe and Asia. And in 1894, 1896 and 1909 these isles were visited by the future St Nicholas II, who was later martyred on 17 July 1918 in Ekaterinburg, a city which straddles Europe and Asia, equidistant between Iceland and the Pacific Coast. Some would say that any hope that the Double-Headed Eagle of the Christian Empire can be restored is fantasy. No doubt they would have said the same if they had been told that the Twelve Apostles would conquer the Pagan Roman Empire. ‘Fear not, little flock!’
Free Europe
After making a series of threats if the peoples of the UK vote for freedom next Thursday, including starting World War III, creating economic meltdown and mass employment, destroying the health system and bankrupting the State pension fund, the Remain enslaved to the EU lobby, has exploited the murder of one of theirs by a lunatic as yet another reason to intimidate the public. Having used the US and German leaders and every single member of the British Establishment, from former spies to the Canadian head of the Bank of England, from corrupt businessmen to the ever-sycophantic BBC to spread their propaganda, they then had to exploit a murder.
All of this is a sign of their desperation. Of course, the chances are that their intimidation will work and the end of EU tyranny will not come next Thursday. The UK and 27 other European countries will not obtain their freedom from the Fourth Reich. The peoples of Europe, like those in the Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic, who have already requested it, will not be able to obtain free votes on ending tyranny. It does not matter. The end of the EU will inevitably come. It is only a matter of time. Nevertheless, it is a national sadness that in all probability it will not be the peoples of the UK who will fulfill their historic duty in bringing freedom to Europe, but some other people and event.
Serbian Church Changes Mind
Torn between the EU/NATO and Orthodoxy, the Serbian Church authorities have, on the very eve of the Crete meeting, changed their minds and are now going to attend it. We suspect that the US ambassador in Belgrade and sums of money or else promises of power have played a role. Torn by the US-fomented schism in Kosovo and betrayed internally, it is difficult to see what those authorities believe in – a visit to the synagogue or Orthodoxy. One day they must make up their minds.
Multinational Council or Isolationist Sanhedrin?
Soon there will be a great council, called ‘holy’, but this will be precisely the Eighth (Impious) Universal Council.
St Kuksha of Odessa (+ 1964)
Now that, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and to the great relief of all faithful Orthodox worldwide, the ‘Great and Holy Pan-Orthodox Council’ has been reduced to an Inter-Greek monologue with 24 Romanians, whose presence has been ordered by the US ambassador in Bucharest, what lessons can be learned?
The first lesson is that if there is to be some meeting of all the Local Churches, then it must be carried out by consulting the faithful, listening to their wishes and talking about the issues that really matter, in an Orthodox way, rather than imposing some irrelevant top-down ‘agenda’, in a secular way, like some transnational corporation.
The second lesson is therefore that hubris and Eastern Papism are dead (was it ever alive?) and have been replaced by humility and the Holy Spirit.
The third lesson is that threats and intimidation from the US State Department, or anywhere else, do not work with free Orthodox.
The fourth lesson is that all Orthodox bishops must be invited to any Council, as is the Tradition. That half of the world’s approximately 700 Orthodox bishops present would be from the Russian Orthodox Church would be just a fact of life. After all, of the world’s 216 million Orthodox, 164 million, over 75%, belong to the multinational Russian Orthodox Church.
Therefore, the fifth lesson is that if you want to be a big Church, do not fall into flag-waving phyletism (narrow nationalism) and then you will find that other nationalities will want to be with you – over 60 nationalities make up the Russian Orthodox Church. Flag-waving phyletism is for football hooligans, not for Orthodox Christians.
The only beneficial result of the Crete meeting so far is that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has promised not to interfere in the Ukraine, unlike as it sadly did in Estonia. If we can learn the above lessons as well, perhaps this whole affair will, by the Providence of God, turn out to have been positive.
Russophobia: Hatred of Christ
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/religious-roots-russophobia-charlemagne-charlemagne-our-days-exposed/ri14877?utm_source=Russia+Insider+Daily+Headlines&utm_campaign=b72df1e14d-Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c626db089c-b72df1e14d-183204397&ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=b72df1e14d&mc_eid=5c8d1856f4